An interview with the cast of Critical Role’s new RPG, Candela Obscura

With a new taster for its role-playing games, Critical Role expands its ambitious storytelling style. Candela Obscura, based on Darrington Press’ new Illuminated Worlds role-playing game system. On May 25, the troupe kicked things off with a free quickstart guide, released in advance of the full game’s publication at the end of 2023. Audiences were treated to a sneak peek at Candela ObscuraIn action, a streaming series by the same name premiered that same day.

Darrington Press has not branded Illuminated Worlds a system or Candela Obscura as a game specifically intended for performed play, it’s clear that the rules are designed to get out of the way, avoiding lengthy rules lookups that can bog down live play. The first half was dominated by character intros, world building, and mechanics. But once the dice were rolling, it felt like the system would be perfect for fast-paced, improvised play. Polygon sent an email interview to several cast members prior to the premiere to find out more about their design influences and the player experience in the new system.

Picture: Critical Role on Twitch

Candela Obscura is explicitly billed as a Forged in the Dark system, taking inspiration and some key mechanics from John Harper’s beloved heist RPG Blades in Dark as well as Free League Publishing’s Nordic horror game Vaesen. Although popular real plays, such as Friends at the Table (as seen in The Adventure Zone) and Friends at the Table have had highly praised campaigns. Blades, it’s notable that both are edited podcasts, where moments of looking up rules and the like can be pared down. Indeed, there’s a minor trend toward actual plays so heavily edited that they lean away from the sportslike pleasures of actual play and become nearly indistinguishable from scripted audio dramas. Consider Critical Role’s most recent acquisition, “semi-improvised” Middlest, in that part of the fiction podcast spectrum, as well as Fool & Scholar’s upcoming horror adventure Dark Dice: Shores Of The Silver Thrum. That project notes in its Patreon announcement that “there are scant references to the fact that this improvised podcast was originally a game at all.”

In contrast, live and live-to-tape actual plays don’t have the luxury of post-production edits, so concision comes from trimming rule sets, as in Hyper did with Children on BikesThe following are some examples of how to use Kollok and Gabe Hicks did with his Mythic Lite for Dimension 20’s Shriek Week. It shouldn’t be surprising that these examples, and CandelaThe systems are designed to use one type of die in large numbers (usually the d6/d10) rather than a variety of shapes which could confuse new players and cause them to make mistakes in the heat.

Speaking to Polygon, cast member Taliesin Jaffe (Lightkeeper) was reticent to make any claims about how mechanics impact play and performance (“I’m still learning”). However, he did admit to the fact that Candela Obscura was among the “performance encouraging” systems, wryly likening the system’s use of role-based character sheets to “commedia dell’arte,” a form of theater known for its use of stock characters. As those familiar with co-designer Spenser Starke’s other blockbuster TTRPG Alice Is MissingWorking within these constraints can transform play.

Darrington Press

Even so, Candela Obscura presents a style of play and performance that focuses on character as the place for player agency — as game designer Navi Drake noted on Twitter during the premiere, it’s “a hidden rails game with expanded player agency”The GM should be someone who has a good sense of pacing and story structure. The quickstart guide is a great resource for viewers who are familiar with the phases of a story. CandelaMatt Mercer’s game-mastering techniques include the assignment of scenes, the reveals which propel players to the next scene, and how he extends or speeds up each phase based on player choices. In that respect it is similar to Darrington’s genre-crossing It’s Not Over Until the Last GaspThe Polygon review praised the approach of improvised story-telling in this film. In a similar fashion, Anjali Bhimani (Charlotte) described how scenes and situations served as jumping-off points for internal reflections: “Getting to search inside for the ways some of the situations [presented] would affect the mental, emotional, and spiritual state of a character was a very fulfilling challenge to take on.”

When asked to comment on the advantages of the system Bhimani (Arlo), and Laura Bailey, Bhimani’s partner, were both quick to mention the positive effects it had in terms of character creation collectively and individually. Bailey noted the way the system “makes you think outside the box,” adding, “It’s easy in other systems to feel like a superhero. This game system helps you realize how mortal you really are. This increases the stakes in any situation. Which means that the successes flood you with relief!” Bailey used the shorter-run series as a chance to create a character with more “extreme personality traits […]It may seem intimidating in the long term. Arlo’s always in the middle. [of her own awareness]. There’s a ‘head tilt’ aspect to her that is super fun to experiment with. She leans into her weirdness as opposed to trying to hide it.”

Picture: Critical Role on Twitch

You can also find out more about the following: Candela Obscura set is a good visual representation of the show (and game)’s goals: making a rich and impressive experience while still working within the constraints of the multi-camera layout that has been Critical Role’s trademark since the earliest days. This set is deep enough to give the illusion of large rooms, and the curiosities that are hidden behind them. The space before the players remains minimal, as they use custom glassware, dice trays, and other items to complement the theme. The lighting highlights the players who are active while still allowing the other table members and their reactions to be legible. The production team (including director Steve Failows, co-producing with Maxwell James) experimented with “dozens of atmospheric tools,” Jaffe noted, though which of those tools will show up on stream in future episodes is still under wraps.

Indeed, Jaffe was keeping quite a few secrets up his sleeve, including the nature of his own role as Lightkeeper, described in early press as “a steward for viewers” and in the quickstart guide as a non-player character used by the GM to introduce assignments. In the opening episode, we see Jaffe introducing the Circle to us. He is speaking to not only the players but also the audience in retrospect. If asked whether the Lightkeeper owed anything to Rod Serling, he replied: “Yes.” The Twilight Zone, Jaffe noted the parallel “is a great touchstone for our Lightkeeper. I’m not sure how soon we’re going to be showing our hand on that one, but it is very intentional.”

Darrington Press, Critical Role and other publishers are apparently running a game called Candela for all of us this summer –—we’ve heard the hook, made our arrival, but there’s more reveals to come before full illumination. What we, as potential actors and audience members do in this world remains to be discovered.

Candela Obscura’s stand-alone episodes air during Critical Role’s dark week on the last Thursday of each month at 7 p.m. PDT on Twitch and YouTube channels. Twitch members can watch video-on-demand immediately following broadcasts, while YouTube and Podcast VOD is available two weeks after.